The present invention relates to analyzing image data and, more particularly, to determining geographic position information from a single image.
Geographic position information, such as, for example, real-world coordinates and/or other position data, of an object may be determined for a variety of applications and fields. For example, navigation systems or devices may use geographic position information of geographic objects to provide guidance and/or visual displays to end users. In one embodiment, a navigation system or device may provide realistic placement of visual models of points-of-interest (“POIs”), signs, and other road features based on substantially accurate real-world geographic position data of those geographic features. Also, the navigation system or device may provide better route guidance, route calculation, safety features, and/or other navigation-related functions based on substantially accurate real-world geographic position data, such as latitude and longitude coordinates of various geographic objects.
Geographic position information, such as for road objects, may be determined by real-world measurements, such as by hired personnel that use handheld position or GPS (“Global Positioning System”) devices. However, real-world measurements for multiple geographic features may be time consuming and costly if not impractical or improbable. Some systems may use multiple cameras to focus on a geographic feature, and correspondence calculations between the cameras are used to determine geographical position information of the geographic feature. Also, multiple images of the same geographic feature may be used to determine geographic position information, such as via triangulation. However, the use of multiple cameras and/or multiple images to estimate geographic position data for a geographic object may involve increased complexity, time, and cost.